L A B B
by DragonFable
Summary: Nannie Haliburton documents Beyond Birthday's childhood from what he's told her during the time they spent in their psychiatric sessions. - Nannie Haliburton is a character that Rae has made up and given permission to me to use.
1. Prologue

I remember the day he was escorted through the door vividly. His attire was completely black and his hands were covered with gloves. His wrists had been handcuffed and connected to the rope chain around his waist. He kept his gaze down cast the whole time he had been in the room, though not out of self-consciousness from how terribly burned his face had been, but rather out of shame from having failed.

He said nothing at all, and remained silent until the fifth or sixth session, and it was as the two guards were taking him out of the room that he said it.

"You will die on the twelfth of November, in the year 2013, in the fortieth second of the third minute of the twelfth hour, Nannie Haliburton."

And then he was taken through the door.

My thoughts were possibly what they shouldn't have been, being nothing more than a simple disappointment in having to die on my thirty-second birthday. That'll suck…

After that, I was asked by my employer if I wanted to back out what the Californian Mayor had asked me to do (I was asked to more or less give the okay to let him plead to insanity and be set free from jail). Maybe someone with a greater amount of common-sense would have in the given situation, I responded with contradiction. I asked for him to come everyday of the week if possible.

I'm fairly sure that pissed him off somewhat.

It wasn't until half-way through the first week of the new scheduling that he spoke again. However, only to get me to "shut the hell up."

Two years have passed since then and now Beyond Birthday is dead. Under those conditions, it is customary to give up his file, but before doing so I would like to make something of a document of his childhood. I know he would have wanted me to do so, he only said so every other day.


	2. Goals

I'm afraid to say that I don't know much about Beyond's life before he was taken to the orphanage; he wouldn't dare share that with me. It got to be aggravating at times when I would ask. He would get pissy and not say a word for the rest of the session. He was entirely childish to say the least, but I could only be thankful for it later on when it helped my case out greatly.

The Wammy's House, that was the name of the orphanage Beyond had gone to. He described it as a facility for the intellectually-gifted children of the world. Quillish Wammy, famous inventor and owner of the Wammy's House, apparently cultivated prodigal, young minds into detectives.

It was when Beyond Birthday was seven that he was first brought to the house. The building was relatively new, so he was only the second orphan actually there.

He was brought there from the Leeds train station in England after having spent the night there. Roger Ruvie had picked him up from the station, and drove him back to Hampshire. The two were silent the entire way.

Had Roger actually liked kids, he'd have noticed and found it troubling that the orphaned prodigies never grew any sort of attachment to their parents or guardians. the first orphan to join Wammy's and L Lawliet certainly hadn't. Beyond said that he had expected his parents' death, and so chose not to grow attached.

When Roger finally stopped the car, parking it in the garage some odd hours later, Beyond was quick to get out. He was then led inside the large building, staring down at the reflective gold tile with slight amusement until Roger stopped in front of opened double doors. The doors opened into a large room with clothed-covered tables plaguing the floor. It was dimly lit, making the lone figure inside almost invisible.

Inside the room, a girl nearly twice the age of Beyond at the time sat by herself. She had dark brown hair, reaching her shoulder blades, and atop her head sat a navy blue paperboy hat. She had a cropped, beige jacket over her long-sleeved black shirt, and a flowing, dark green skirt covered her legs.

"That is the only orphan here currently. You will only address to her as nothing more than 'A', understood?" Roger had asked as he and Beyond stared at the girl. At the sound of his voice, she jumped slightly and glanced slowly over her shoulder at the two. Her eyes were wide and frightened as she stared down at Beyond then.

"I do," Beyond nodded silently, staring back at A just as intently.

"Very well. Come with me, then," the old man sighed, turning then and continued down the hall. Beyond and A stared at each other a moment longer before he grinned slightly and quickly followed.

He was taken to another room, one that Roger had claimed to be his own. It wasn't to terribly large in comparison to the room prior, maybe equivalent to that of your bedroom. In the center of the room sat Roger's desk. He crossed the area to said desk and from one of the six drawers, pulled out a small stack of papers and handed them to Beyond. "Complete these; hand them back when you are done. You may sit over there if need be," he explained absently, and waved him off.

Beyond strode over to the chair and climbed in it silently before he began work on the tests handed to him. He found them to be simple, and finished them in no time, thirty minutes at most. After handing them back as instructed and Roger went over them once, twice, thrice…

"Well, this is somewhat of a surprise…" he had started, "but you've scored higher than A…" he sighed. "She achieved half of the score L had made, and you were a quarter closer."

Beyond said nothing in response, and merely stared at the ground. Of course he would score higher, what good was the girl anyway? She was going to die in a month's time. He frowned slightly then when something had registered he didn't much like.

"L…?"

"Yes, L. The very reason this building exists today."

"You said earlier that A was the only orphan here, though… Who is he and why would have to take the test?" Without even knowing him, Beyond hated him.

"He is an orphan, yes, but he is living with his godfather for now; his score on the test was needed to compare with A's and now your's. Welcome to Wammy's House, B."

"…Which answers did I get wrong, then?"

"B… Don't worry about that now," Roger had grinned wearily then. "You can't retake the test. And you should be happy with what you have now."

"That really isn't good enough, though…"

"Chalice here will take you to your new room, B…"

Beyond frowned again and glanced over his shoulder at the woman standing in the doorway now. _Another old one…_

As I have come to find out sometime later after he had told this particular story, was that Chalice had just so happened to be the name of Beyond's mother. Go figure.

When Chalice had turned to leave, Beyond glanced back at Roger, who had exhorted him to quickly follow after her. Beyond reluctantly did so.

The elderly woman led him down the hall silently, and then up a flight of stairs. When she finally stopped and unlocked one of the rooms in the long corridor, she opened the door for him and wordlessly started off again, leaving him.

He watched her off with his plastered frown before shaking his head and stepping inside the room, closing the door behind him.

Two weeks had passed and, a little to Beyond's dismay, he had heard nothing more about the alleged L. What was so special about him anyway?

The long days were spent in class, eight hours a day he had spent working hard in the same classroom as A, which was the only time he ever saw her. He wasn't to terribly worried about her, though, as again, she was fated to die in just two weeks now.

But as they were set free from studies and she hurried out of the room, he watched her. He watched her and the name and numbers floating over her head.

Alice Amethyst

6 9 13 2

Maybe he could stop her death? Well, then again, it could possibly be that she die from an illness or such thing… Which in that case, it would be impossible to stop.

He decided from there to try is experiment, but he would need to keep an eye on her and follow her everywhere. He damn well knew she wouldn't take to him and his stalking keenly. The girl was very paranoid, and would likely catch on quickly if he wasn't careful.

And so he carried out with his plan. Of stalking the poor, soon-to-die, girl. It didn't necessarily strike me as odd when he informed me of this, as I kind of always knew he was just a little weird. This only confirmed it.

He also didn't take it to well when I couldn't help but laugh as he explained this all. Naturally, he was pissed off, but instead of condemning me to another boring and silent session, he pulled a Houdini act and managed to escape his handcuffs. Though, when he was finally free of them, the two guards came in and saw him without the cuffs. Thereon out, Beyond had been chained to the chair by his arms, waist, and legs.

I received a week of silence as punishment.

Two weeks passed and Beyond was successful in going unnoticed by A. On her death date, he followed her up the stairs all the way up to the flat roof of the building where she had kept a long rope, a noose all ready.

This was it. She was going to commit suicide. He could easily stop that.

"H-hey…!" he called out as she put the noose around her neck.

She jumped, startled, and spun around to stare at him incredulously. "What do you want…?"

"You're not really going to jump are you?"

"If you mean off the building, yes."

"…Why?"

The golden question.

"The pressure is too much, I can't handle it…"

"What pressure?"

"They haven't told you yet, I suspect…" she sighed.

"Told me what?"

"L is the reason you were brought here. Your main goal in life now is to surpass L. But so far, it's been proven impossible. Don't even bother humoring yourself, this is wasted effort, all of it," she growled, and then didn't hesitate a moment to jump off the building.

However, Beyond could have cared less that she jumped now. His whole experiment was now forgotten.

This was, for him, a euphoric moment to say the least. His goal, the goal he tried desperately to contain, was what Roger had wanted out of him this whole time.

His goal to surpass L, to get a higher score than him.

He had kept it under control, his new found obsession to have L grovel at his feet, so that Roger wouldn't catch on. He couldn't risk anything that could possibly have sent him off to another orphanage.

He quickly ran back inside and down the many stairs, all the way down to his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

His set goal was to beat L.

Easily done.

Child's play, had to be.

He knew just how he would do it, too.

All he needed to do now was to discover every secret his unique and revealing eyes.


	3. Puzzles

Beyond Birthday was highly strange, yes. But ne'er once did I believe him to be insane. I never wanted to believe he was, but in order to help him out of prison, I had to. That or convince the mayor that he was.

In retrospect, that wouldn't really be difficult. Beyond really didn't come off as of sound mind unless you really got to know him like I was forced to do. Not that I didn't enjoy the sessions with him, he was much more interesting to talk to than the other patients, but it's just not something I would normally have chosen to do on my own.

But even if he were able to plead insanity, he would be sent to an asylum. In other words, a padded, white prison. I can't explain it, but that just wasn't good enough for me.

In the time that I spent with him and actually went about doing my job, I was able to detect what mental disorders he does have: Narcissism, Obsession, and PTSD.

Beyond had started making crossword puzzles some time after A's suicide. He would make them as difficult as he could muster, and the middle row would spell out a message. Whenever he finished one he would take them to Chalice to test. She rarely ever talked if at all, so she wouldn't mention to Roger what he was doing. He hoped so, at least. Also, she was highly intelligent herself (of course, not as much as he; he made a point for that to be known), thusly the perfect test subject for his crossword puzzles.

The first few she had completed with ease, which only pissed him off. Several more attempts later, and Beyond had finally made a crossword Chalice couldn't figure out.

But he wanted to try again, just to make sure. So with his new puzzle in hand, Beyond set forth down the hall to find Chalice. He normally found her in the library, but on this particular day, several weeks after A's death, he found the room to be completely empty.

He frowned and his hand closed around the puzzle. Where the hell could she be?

Begrudgingly, he turned and stalked off down the hall while pondering to himself just where the old woman could possibly be.

In his search for the elder, he happened upon a room where the door had been left ajar. Out of sheer curiosity, he pushed the door further and stole a glance inside. He frowned again at its contents and pushed the door open completely and took a few steps inside. Before him the wall had been covered with computer monitors, large and small.

His frown soon melted into a grin and he took another step closer to the screens. If he could scan his puzzle and publish it on the internet, just think of all the testers!

"You really shouldn't be in here…" a voice suddenly said behind him.

The frown reappeared and he turned around. And there he was, standing in the doorway.

L Lawliet

7 12 1 65 3 7

"I assume you're B, yes?"

"And you are L…?"

"I am."

L didn't look to be much older than Beyond, maybe a year. How he could have scored twenty-five percent at the least higher than himself made him all the more mad, but he wasn't about to show this.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Looking for Ms. Chalice."

"For what reason?"

"Ms. Chalice asked me to make a crossword that she would not be able to complete from difficulty as some sort of game."

"Chalice is a mute."

"Or perhaps she just doesn't speak to you."

The two boys stared hardly at each other silently for another moment before L smirked slightly.

"Chalice is not in the building currently. She'll be back in a few hours. However, in the meantime, might I take a look at your puzzle?"

"I suppose…" Beyond agreed reluctantly, releasing the puzzle to L's waiting hand.

L wasted no time in taking it from Beyond and walking inside the room, pulling out one of the computer chairs and climbing up in it. When he was situated and began work on the puzzle, Beyond stared at him oddly as he himself had found L's peculiar posture to be particularly odd (which is saying quite a lot considering the source).

"Only five minutes…?" Beyond complained then as L handed the puzzle back wordlessly and stepped down from the chair.

"Interestingly constructed, though simple," L stated as he pocketed his hands and started for the door. "You should work on both that and staying out of this room."

Beyond seethed then as he watched him out, crushing the puzzle in his hand then. Of course he would need at least L to be able to complete the puzzle if his plan were to work out accordingly, however, L's arrogance had pissed him off beyond belief. He balled the puzzle and threw it down to the ground before stalking off out of the room.

After a few minutes of storming the halls, Beyond had cooled down some and his anger turned into curiosity once again.

He soon reached the flight of stairs and began down them, going all the way down to ground level. He stopped abruptly, though, when he found Roger at the front door with a middle-aged woman in a casual business attire.

Bellatrix Gingras

2 8 19

She would die in only a few days… Another test subject had appeared before him. He grinned at the notion and hid behind the posts of the handrail and watched the two converse silently with a malevolent grin.


	4. Expectations

It was always great fun to piss him off.

Always.

I would get a kick out of watching him struggle against the constricting rope chains which bound him to the chair after his first Houdini trick.

When he gave up, he stated that I had the potential to be a serial killer. I found this rather ironic as it contradicts what I do, in which I'm given serial killers and hopefully turning them around into a state of what we consider normality. But then again, I guess it would take one to know one.

However, I suppose I had too much fun in pissing him off as one day he had managed to steal a bobby pin from the front desk of the hospital and picked the lock of his chains with it, thusly Houdini Act Two.

That wasn't much fun and resulted in his needing to be sedated and cutting the session short. That lovely day ended with a drugged and knocked out Beyond Birthday and a very, very bummed out Nannie Haliburton.

I was expecting the usual punishment the next day, but he never showed up.

He was absent for a week before I mustered up the courage to ask just where the hell he was.

No one seemed to really know which was rather irritating.

Weeks passed and still no one knew.

He never did come back for his sessions, however, that wasn't the last time I saw him.

However, back to what I'm supposed to be telling…

Bellatrix Gingras was a Representative for the British Association of Social Workers, or the BASW for short.

She had been sent to the orphanage after news of A's suicide leaked. Luckily for Wammy, however, that nothing was mentioned to the press.

"I noticed the helicopter on the roof of the building while on the way here, Mr. Ruvie…"

"That seems rather hard to believe, Ms. Gingras, considering just how many stories to this building there are…" Roger grinned wearily.

"The helicopter is indeed very large, Mr. Ruvie," Bellatrix replied curtly.

"…Yes, indeed it is, Ms. Gingras," he sighed.

It was rather obvious that the social worker had been there before, doing an investigation of sorts either when the lights in the building had been turned out, or when any supervision had been out at the time. The latter surely wouldn't have done any good for Wammy's House, but what Bellatrix had done could have in turn been trespassing. Perhaps with her death, it was never reported.

"What reason could an orphanage possibly possess to need a helicopter?"

"A friend of Wammy's asked for its repair; it has been malfunctioning, Ms. Gingras."

Half of that was a lie. The helicopter did in fact belong to the orphanage, L specifically, but he was true in that it was malfunctioning. Beyond had said the rotary blades would start on their own sporadically, but it never did lift itself of the ground.

"However, I believe the helicopter is not the reason you are here right now, is it, Ms. Gingras?"

"Why, no it isn't," she forced a professional smile.

The two stared at each other in the same forced pleasant expression for a moment before turning about face and started towards the stairs after Roger had redundantly offered a tour.

Not wanting to be caught on the stairs, Beyond quickly climbed over the railing and soundlessly dropped off, landing gracefully on the floor behind a couch and remained unnoticed. (Personally, I found this hard to believe. More than likely him just trying to impress who the Hell knows whom and failed miserably. Beyond is anything but graceful, and honestly do believe he was either caught or just cowered back up the stairs. However, this is his story and it shall be told how he sees fit, no matter how ridiculous.)

Bellatrix followed Roger throughout the orphanage until they reached his office, where she then said she could carry out the rest on her own.

Beyond had followed the social worker the whole while, and would quickly duck to hide whenever she paused to glance behind her at his presence.

Finally after ten minutes of this process, Bellatrix had arrived at the roof. She frowned distastefully at the helicopter, which currently remained still. As she crossed the roof towards the edge where she contemplated A had thrown herself over, Beyond silently slipped through the heavy door and remained there, watching Bellatrix.

Bellatrix felt dizzy after glancing down at the ground over the side of the roof and shook her head, frowning again as she scribbled notes down on a pad. She then turned back towards the helicopter and started for it.

Beyond frowned, predicting the inevitable, and quickly started towards her. "Gingras…" he called uncertainly once he was a few feet behind her.

She jumped and spun around, staring down at him with wide eyes. Bellatrix was then filled with inexplicable fear and dread of the boy staring up at her in mock concern, unaware that she was now backing away from him.

His eyes grew wide and he threw out his hand towards her in a possible attempt to snatch her wrist. "Wait…!" he yelled.

"W-who…" she started, but was then cut off as she tripped over a risen pipe and back into the now rotating tail blades of the helicopter of which Beyond had tried to warn her of.

In a matter of seconds, there was nothing left of Bellatrix Gingras but the blood that had splattered everywhere. A considerable amount had sprayed Beyond's entire front side, which would possibly have been traumatizing for any young child at his age. But apparently Beyond was too pissed that his experiment had once again failed to even notice he was drenched in blood. Seething, he turned and stalked back inside, dripping crimson behind him as he went. 

He trailed down the hall silently, aiming back for his room when he was interrupted. "B…" Roger said quietly behind him. Beyond froze.

"What is that you're covered in?"

Beyond said nothing. How could he? He couldn't admit to his special seeing eyes, that would ruin everything!

"B…" Roger said again, his patience growing thin. And with that, Beyond took off running.

Which turned out to be…

A very, very stupid stunt.

It made him look guilty for Bellatrix's death, which surprisingly was never looked into outside of the orphanage.

Beyond was caught by two men he'd never once seen before before he could reach his room, and the two carried him off to a much smaller room where he would be kept until he talked. He never did.

What else was done to him in order to get him to speak he refused to go into. And in all of the sessions I had with him, that was all he was able to tell me.

The last time I saw him was at court. I was only there to give the statement that would decide whether or not Beyond would stay in jail for the remainder of his sentence.

That statement, much to my surprise, had set him free of both a mental hospital and jail. It was declared that he would be liberated under the one condition that he was under close supervision twenty-four/seven.

At this, I couldn't help but jump up from the bench with a cheer, expecting everyone to do the same as they always did in those blockbuster films. However, I was the only one in the audience section of the courtroom, and everyone turned to look at me incredulously save for Beyond, who remained slumped over in his chair, staring blankly at the ground.

I felt my face heat up instantly and I uttered and apology before taking a seat again.

The judge continued to stare for a moment before shaking his head and drew an inward sigh as he banged the mallet, dismissing court.

Those same two guards grabbed Beyond by the elbows and lifted him from the chair and led him towards the doors. I had quickly slipped away from the benches to meet them at the doors. No words were exchanged when I latched my arms around his waist, smiling broadly at the notion that he would actually get out like I had hoped he would. My thoughts at that time were that I would have gladly offered to be that twenty-four/seven supervision, and how much against regulations it was to grow so attached to a patient, especially in my field of psychiatry.

He bowed his head then and whispered his thanks low enough so that only I would hear. With a single nod, I let go and took a step back, watching then as they led him through the door.

On January 21, 2004, the day before he was scheduled to be set free, Beyond Birthday died mysteriously of a heart attack. And on his cell wall, four letters were etched in.

LABB.

L. A. B. B.

L After Beyond Birthday. 


End file.
